


Your (Thought-You-Were-)Dying Wish

by emrys (livingshitpost)



Series: this shield doesn't belong to me [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bucky Barnes & Peggy Carter Friendship, Bucky Barnes as Captain America, Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Interviews, M/M, Museums, Non-Canonical Character Death, Not Canon Compliant, Past Character Death, Pseudo-History, Steve Rogers as the Winter Soldier, kinda??, quotes from canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 20:36:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16205195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/livingshitpost/pseuds/emrys
Summary: The interviews play on repeat in a secluded area just off of the main exhibit. Margaret Carter's voice fills the room, accompanied by an interviewer. A girl and her mother are watching her on the screen when James Barnes walks in.





	Your (Thought-You-Were-)Dying Wish

The interviews play on repeat in a secluded area just off of the main exhibit. Margaret Carter's voice fills the room, accompanied by an interviewer. A girl and her mother are watching her on the screen when James Barnes walks in.

_"-Today we'd like to move on to-"_

_"Steve Rogers?"_

_"Yeah- well, and James Barnes."_

_"Of course, of course. They were both-"_

_"Exactly. So, what was your initial reaction when you heard about Project Rebirth?"_

_"I thought it was lovely, in the same way that Peter Pan is lovely, or the Knights of the Round Table," she laughs._

_"So you were- you were skeptical."_

_"To put it mildly. But then I met Doctor Erskine and Howard Stark, and then, finally, Rogers, and I must say that my opinion changed, somewhat, after that."_

_"At first- correct me if I'm wrong, but the intention was to create an entire army of supersoldiers, correct?"_

_"Yes, but Rogers nearly made up for that discrepancy himself."_

_"And many of his exploits, along with those of Barnes, following Rogers's death, are still classified."_

_"Well, not every hero gets a parade. I think that's how Rogers preferred it, at least. Suffice to say that the world would be a very different place if he and Barnes hadn't been there to protect it."_

_"Did either of them have an effect on you personally?"_

_". . . I-I beg your pardon?"_

_"I'm, I'm sorry, I just mean that it must have been a remarkable experience getting to work with him."_

_"Well, a life in the military demands a certain amount of detachment, particularly from a woman. Sometimes it's important to give and to receive orders without dwelling on the cost of the individual. The mission trumps all. Steve never let me forget that these were real lives, and real deaths, that we were dealing with. Which is quite fortunate, or Barnes would never have been around to . . . to sort of take up the mantle. They also both treated me like a person," she laughed again, "which I very much appreciated."_

_"I recently spoke to several soldiers who credited Captain America with saving their lives."_

_"Oh, well, there are a lot of men that could give you that interview."_

_"This was- this was outside Volgograd, 1945."_

_She's quiet for a moment. "Hm. Yes, that was a difficult winter. We were in Russia. A blizzard had trapped half our battalion behind the German line. Captain Barnes fought his way through a Hydra blockade that had pinned our allies down for months. He saved over a thousand men. Including the man who would, um, who would become my husband, as it turned out. Even after both of them had died, Captain America was still changing my life."_

_"I understand that you were the last person to speak with Captain Barnes before his plane went down."_

_"I wa- I was, yeah." She clears her throat with a smile, trying to pass it off as a laugh._

_"Could you tell us what he said?"_

_She looks down for a moment, laughing again, this time for real. "He told me to make sure that the people knew that he and Captain Rogers were romantic partners. He said to me,_ Pegs, you tell everyone you possibly can. And you make things change, so that men like us don't have to hide away anymore. _And I have been. I mean, I can't exactly deny him his dying wish, can I?_ _"_

James smiles, almost laughing himself. He sniffles a bit and absently rubs at his eyes with the heel of his hand as the interview fades to black and a new one starts to play. 


End file.
